Projects and Products to Make the World a Happier Place. Jennifer Heynen designs sewing patterns, craft kits, quilting fabric, licenses her art to companies for Garden Flags, Bags, Accessories and more all in a Happy and Bright Style.

Today's stitch is an easy one. It's the cross stitch. It's basically two running stitches that are criss crossed. The only reason I added it to the sample is because there are a couple of ways to stitch multiples of them. Either way works, you can choose which is best for you.

First of all, start at the bottom left point of the "X" and bring your needle up. Send the needle back down on the opposite side of the line.

Now this is where you can choose the method of stitching you like. You can continue across your row, stitching all of the diagonal lines the move from left to right or you can do one "X" at a time. In the above photo I went ahead and stitch the line from right to left next and then moved on to the next "X".

If you're doing a whole row, sometimes it's easier to stitch all of the left to rights and then go back and stitch the right to lefts. It will also insure that your right to left floss will be on top across the whole row. This gives your cross stitch a more consistent look.

Your sampler should be finished at this point, woo hoo! I really hope you had fun. Send me photos of your samplers or other projects you've stitched. Tag me on instagram #jenniferjangles with them or post them on my Facebook page. I can't wait to see what you've stitched up!

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

The french knot.... I will admit this one took me some time to master. It can be tricky, but with practice you'll get the hang of where your hands should be and it will then turn in to something easy to do.

I choose to stitch my knots in purple. Here we go...

First, send the needle up from the bottom on one of the marked spots. Pull the floss all of the way through until the knot hits the fabric.

Approximately an inch above where you're french knot will be, hold the needle in one hand and with your other hand wrap the floss around the needle three times.

Here is the most important part, the hand holding the floss should continue to hold the floss, pull the floss pretty snug. The floss will slide down the needle, continue to keep the floss snug. Start pushing the needle into the fabric. At this point it should look like a knot on your needle, see the photo?

Here's a close up. If it doesn't look like this, your knot isn't going to turn out well, trust me on this. I have had to start over at this point many times.

If your needle looks like this, then send the needle all the way through the fabric. Pull the floss all the way through and you should be left with your knot.

Move on to the next one and try another.

There are loads of knots on this sampler so you'll get the hang of it and be ready to stitch anything.

Here is a graphic as well.

One more stitch and we'll have this sampler wrapped up, yay! Hope you're having fun,

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

The satin stitch is great for filling in areas with color. The satin stitch is basically running stitches that are side by side. Start by pushing your needle up through the fabric on the line. Push the needle back through on the line directly across from where you came up.

You next stitch will go right next to your first stitch. Be sure your needle is coming up and going down on the lines to keep the shape of the leaf.

Continue stitching until you reach the other side of your leaf. Stitch all of your leaves this way. If you feel like your leaves need an outline to give them better shape you can always go around the outside with a back stitch.

Here's the back, I just slid my needle through the floss on the back of the leaf and then trimmed it.

I used three strands of floss and the back stitch to sew the vines for the leaves. Next, switch to yellow or whatever color you chose for your flower and do the satin stitch again for the center of the flower. The outside of the flower is three strands of floss and the running stitch. Finish up the flower and vines today because tomorrow were moving on to french knots.

Monday, April 27, 2015

How's the sampler coming along? Were starting on our third stitch today, this one is called the split stitch. It's called the because you split the previous stitch as you go. I like to use this stitch on vines it's a very organic looking stitch to me.

First off, get your needle and floss ready. Start by making a running stitch.

From the bottom, send the needle up through the fabric and split the floss strands. The needle and floss will come up in the middle of the floss. I've got a couple views of the needle here so you can see.

You'll notice the needle comes up through the floss towards the end of the prior stitch.

When I stitched my two rows of the split stitch I started both rows from the same end, that way the stitches would run the same direction.

Here's a diagram as well.

See yo tomorrow, we'll be working on the satin stitch.
Have a great day,
Jennifer

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Hey, hey, back with another stitch today. Hope those running stitches turned out well for you yesterday and you're feeling confident with them. Today's stitch is the back stitch. It's personally my favorite and I use it all of the time. Sometimes I will do an entire pattern just with the back stitch.

I like it so much because it's a solid line. You can adjust the thickness of it with how many strands you use to stitch it. Let's get started.

Just like yesterday, cut a 24" strand of floss and tie a knot at one end. Thread the opposite end through the needle. Pull it through approximately 10".

Start with a running stitch.

From the bottom, send the needle up through the fabric the same distance over as the length of the running stitch.

In otherwords, if your running stitch was 1/4" long, then send the needle up 1/4" from the stitch.

Now send the needle back down in the same hole that the first stitch went down in.

Come back up in the hole where the second stitch ends. Now start all over.... running stitch first.... here's a diagram to help as well.

For the sampler, you want to stitch two rows of the back stitch. You don't need to switch floss thickness for these.

Book: Sew Small

BOOK: Stitch Kitsch

BOOK: Extraordinary Colors

BOOK: Ceramic Bead Jewelry

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